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A Memoir
by Molly Shannon
A candid, compulsively readable, hilarious, and heartbreaking memoir of resilience and redemption by comedic genius Molly Shannon.
At age four, Molly Shannon's world was shattered when she lost her mother, baby sister, and cousin in a car accident with her father at the wheel. Held together by her tender and complicated relationship with her grieving father, Molly was raised in a permissive household where her gift for improvising and role-playing blossomed alongside the fearlessness that would lead her to become a celebrated actress.
From there, Molly ventured into the wider world of New York and Los Angeles show business, where she created her own opportunities and developed her daring and empathetic comedy. Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Whitney Houston to Adam Sandler to Monica Lewinsky, many told for the first time here, Hello, Molly! spans Molly's time on Saturday Night Live—where she starred alongside Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Cheri Oteri, Tracy Morgan, and Jimmy Fallon, among many others. At the same time, it explores with humor and candor her struggle to come to terms with the legacy of her father, a man who both fostered her gifts and drive and was left with the impossible task of raising his kids alone after the loss of her mother.
Witty, winning, and told with tremendous energy and heart, Hello, Molly!, written with Sean Wilsey, sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our most talented and free-spirited performers.
"Actor and comedian Shannon revisits a life colored by grief in this surprisingly raw and personal account...what's most resonant is Shannon's unflagging story of perseverance...Supremely inspiring, this will leave fans astonished." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Fans will be satisfied with the behind-the-scenes look at the germinations of her most famous characters, especially Mary Katherine Gallagher, but the standout sections focus on her relationship with her father and the self-awareness and drive that led to her success. Equal parts funny and touching, a cut above most celebrity memoirs." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Told in Shannon's bright, irreverent voice, this memoir is equal parts touching and hilarious, a real insight into the mind of a comedic genius." - Booklist (starred review)
"A scattered but often-absorbing recollection, tending more towards anecdote than introspection, and becoming most thoughtful when Shannon reflects on her complex relationship with her father and her mother's absence from her life." - Library Journal
"Exuberant, brave, wholehearted, and hilarious, this book is exactly what you hope it will be." - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of Good Company and The Nest
This information about Hello, Molly! was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Molly Shannon is an actress and comedian. She spent six seasons as a member of the repertory company on Saturday Night Live, primarily known for the eclectic characters she created, such as Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O'Malley. In 2000, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. In 2013, Molly received her second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in Enlightened and again in 2018 for her portrayal of Val in NBC's award-winning comedy Will & Grace. In 2017, she was awarded the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the highly acclaimed drama Other People, written and directed by SNL head writer Chris Kelly. She was most recently seen in the Academy Award–nominated crime drama Promising Young Woman and will soon reprise her lauded performance on the critically acclaimed comedy The Other Two. Molly was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She earned a BFA in drama from New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. She currently lives in California with her husband and two children.
Sean Wilsey, the author of a memoir, Oh the Glory of It All, and an essay collection, More Curious, is at work on a translation of Luigi Pirandello's Uno, Nessuno e Centomila for Archipelago Books and a documentary film about 9/11, IX XI, featuring Roz Chast, Griffin Dunne, and many others.
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